A Comparative Analysis of State Traffic Safety Countermeasures and Implications for Progress “Toward Zero Deaths” in the United States

Proven countermeasures, effective in reducing traffic fatalities, are useful tools for States and other jurisdictions across the United States, particularly as they increasingly adopt “Toward Zero Deaths” highway safety models. The current study was conducted as an initial high-level examination of the implementation of selected proven countermeasures and their implications for progress “Toward Zero Deaths” in the United States. After an extensive review of the literature, 10 countermeasures were selected from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA’s) Countermeasures That Work: A Highway Safety Countermeasure Guide for State Highway Safety Offices for inclusion in the study. Also included were Complete Streets policies, which were specified in the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. All 50 States and the District of Columbia were then examined to determine the extent to which they had implemented these 11 selected countermeasures based on strict criteria established for this study. The number of countermeasures for each State and the District were then compared with their traffic fatality rates by both population and vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Overall, States with a higher number of implemented countermeasures were associated with lower population and VMT traffic fatality rates. It is perhaps unsurprising that two-thirds of States have implemented six or more of the selected countermeasures, as evidence has demonstrated that they save lives.

• Record URL:
  https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812392_rn-usprogresstowardzerodeathscomparativeanalysis.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.dot.gov/files/documents/812392_rn-usprogresstowardzerodeathscomparativeanalysis_0.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/34989
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Revised October 2017.
• Authors:
  • Sung, Jonathan
  • Mizenko, Krista
  • Atkins Jr, Randolph
  • Coleman, Heidi
• Publication Date: 2017-4

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 8p
• Serial:
  • Traffic Safety Facts - Research Note
  • Publisher: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Publication flags:

  Open Access (libre)

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Complete streets; Countermeasures; Fatalities; Implementation; States; Statistical analysis; Traffic law enforcement; Traffic safety
• Identifier Terms: Toward Zero Deaths
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01635122
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 812 392
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: May 24 2017 11:07AM